What do you feed your lami-prone horses?

E

Ellietotz

Well-Known Member
Joined
26 June 2014
Messages
2,274
Visit site
Hi everyone... again!

I'm just wondering what everyone feeds their lami-prone horses as I just think my current mix might get boring. It probably doesn't to him because food is food but hey ho. At the moment, I feed high fibre, low sugar pony nuts with the Dengie Hi Fi Lite (laminitis trust) chaff, with garlic and occasionally chopped veggies. Have been looking into adding some natural herbs or hedgerow to make it more interesting. What do you do?
 
As little as possible depending on the work they are doing, they don't get bored because they get so little and rely on forage for their main calorie intake.

I will not feed garlic as it can upset the hindgut, it is toxic and I don't know of any benefits that cannot be found elsewhere more safely.
Mine all have access to hedgerows around their fields and often nibble at various tasty bits, blackberries at the moment, I will cut nettles and thistles for them to eat as they prefer them wilted, you can pick things yourself if you have access to a good hedge and see what he likes or better still take him for a walk and let him help himself then you can pick some to give him another time.
 
I feed all my horses....hay, soaked, and not ad lib - it's weighed. Grass, strip grazed in summer. They are all in work, moderate, not hard as in galloping or jumping lots. They all have a mineralised salt lick. That's it, and they all look grand, do the work they're asked to and don't arse about acting the fool. I've fed them this way their whole lives (all teenagers now) and never had a colic, laminitis or other feeding-related issue. The only horses I have given hard feed to are lactating mares, some youngstock, horses in regular hard work or recovering emaciated rescues
 
I don't as my boy is tubby enough on grass/hay. If I had to, I would feed a low calorie balancer designed for laminitics with a handful of unmolassed chaff. Beware of the vegetables - carrots for example are very sugary.
 
apercrumbie said:
I don't as my boy is tubby enough on grass/hay. If I had to, I would feed a low calorie balancer designed for laminitics with a handful of unmolassed chaff. Beware of the vegetables - carrots for example are very sugary.
Click to expand...

He only really gets dinner after work, he's not overweight or underweight, lives out all year round. Just wanted to see if there is anything I can do to make it more interesting for him!
 
Megmoo said:
He only really gets dinner after work, he's not overweight or underweight, lives out all year round. Just wanted to see if there is anything I can do to make it more interesting for him!
Click to expand...

Horses don't need "interesting". They eat a pretty monotonous diet by nature.
 
None of my horses have ever been lami prone, but I've always fed them ad lib soaked hay, chaff, Speedibeet, micronised linseed with a Vit & Min supplement. They all do well on it. I also T/O of a night and bring in during the day.
 
Megmoo said:
Well I know, that's why I said in the original post that food is food and I'm sure he doesn't care but I want him to have all the nutrition etc that he can get!
Click to expand...

Does he look poor or have anything wrong with him? The vast majority of leisure horses (most horses in other words) do not need anything other than good quality pasture and hay.
 
Megmoo said:
He only really gets dinner after work, he's not overweight or underweight, lives out all year round. Just wanted to see if there is anything I can do to make it more interesting for him!
Click to expand...

And I'm warning you to be careful if he's lami prone - he doesn't need it. If he is struggling for vitamins/minerals (for example if you are having to limit his grazing in summer) then a low calorie balancer would be a good way to ensure he has enough. Otherwise, you are just giving him food that he doesn't need, and you may not know when that will push him over the edge into lami territory.

If you do want to give a token feed, keep it small and very simple. If you want to make it "more interesting", nettles can be good for lami horses. Avoid all fruit - vegetables like swedes are ok, carrots are not.
 
I fed graze on chaff and soaked hay and that's it no carrots apples or the like, and although hifi lite has the laminitis trust label it has added molasses so I wouldn't feed it, I would by the molasses free hi Fi it's a much better product.
 
Megmoo said:
He only really gets dinner after work, he's not overweight or underweight, lives out all year round. Just wanted to see if there is anything I can do to make it more interesting for him!
Click to expand...

Well, as long as 99% of his food is forage, then I can't see a problem with adding herbs. Lami-prones often have metabolisms that can't tolerate loads of vits n mins but do better on "wholesome" sources of it such as herbs, oils (micronized linseed being the best), brewers yeast if you must. Personally, I like the herbs from Natural Horse Supplies or Progressive Horse.

This time of year I harvest rosehips, meadowsweet and nettles. In Spring I dry loads of clivers which is literally everywhere, and mint. I grow loads of down at the bottom of the garden. Makes me sound like a hippy but at least it's interesting and if you gather them fresh it's even more inetersting for a stabled horse. I chuck allsorts in the paddock too.
 
less than average grazing over night, in from 6am till 4/5pm, big tub trug of chopped straw, big bin of straw with a tiny bit of hay mixed in, and I mean tiny! Then a small feed of a handful of Agrobs, a bigger handful of chopped straw, salt and a mineral balancer from Progressive Earth
 
I'm afraid you need to be cruel to be kind, mine is strip grazed and I'm mean about moving the fence. He only gets small amount of feed to put his joint supplements in.

He will get hay in the winter, plus plain oat straw chaff to fill him up.

It's still a struggle and even after three years of owning him I'm still learning but I have added issues in the fact he has to live out, he panics if contained too much and he can't be exercised either, oh and he gets very difficult if he's hungry.

So my god sends are.......

Honeychop plain oat straw chaff
Simple systems lucie stalks
Simple systems high fibre lucie nuts
Simple systems lucie brix

All are very low sugar & starch (below 10% combined sugar/starch is what you need to aim for). AND OTHER HUGE THING IS DONT RUG AT ALL OVER WINTER OR UNDER RUG, native types especially need to drop weight in winter, it's uses their metabolism.

My pony isn't rugged at all over winter meaning he comes into spring lean, he did wear a rain sheet twice last winter for one day when he'd dropped some winter coat, so March time and we had two big storms. As soon as he was dry again and happier and storm had gone it was taken off.
 
I feed mine a token feed of Dengie unmollased Healthy Hooves with added supplements.

He's on average grazing & has adlib soaked hay when stabled over night.

He'll be clipped & lightly rurged over the winter as needed.
 
Mine lives out 24/7 all year round, restricted grazing in the summer months as in she only has access to about 6 acres with two other horses and three minis, in winter they have about 14 acres of mixed grazing, ad lib hay and now as she is older she has speedy beet and HiFi light twice a day. That's it. She is retired. Hasn't had laminitis since I made the decision to turn her out 24/7.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top